Where Bad Boys Are Ruined by Holly Renee - A Book Review
Synopsis:
I ate leftover cupcakes and cracked macarons for breakfast.
I was ninety percent sure he simply ate up girls like me.
I was covered in paint splatters, cake batter, and sweat the first time I met him.
He was covered in badass tattoos and a smile that seemed to hold a secret I would never figure out.
Rule number 1 was never, under any circumstances, fall for the man who I wrote my lease check to.
So, I tucked him away in the “Fantasize Only” compartment of my brain and called it a day.
But he didn’t make it easy.
He was arrogant, funny, and the biggest flirt I had ever met.
Most of the time, I didn’t know if I was just a game to him.
If I didn’t know better, I’d say he was on a mission to ruin my life.
And maybe my heart, too.
Genre: Contemporary Romance
Tropes:
- Opposites Attract
- Forced Proximity
- He Falls First
Where Bad Boys Are Ruined is the final book of the Good Girls series by Holly Renee, a series which I saw on BookTok. I wasn’t impressed by Where Good Girls Go To Die and Where Bad Girls Go To Fall, but I decided to stick with completing the series seeing as each book was under 300 pages and there were only 3 books in the series.
Where Bad Boys Are Ruined was my final book of May, which I prioritised reading due to it being included in my KU subscription.
Where Bad Boys Are Ruined follows Charlie, who meets Livy when visiting the vacant unit neighbouring the tattoo shop that her husband owns. Charlie accepts the vacant unit and begins her work in renovating the unit, ready for the opening of her bakery.
During a day renovating, she is visited by the workers of the tattoo shop, where she is met with Brandon – a brooding tattoo artist next door, who overs her help with the opening. In their initial meeting, Charlie can’t deny her instant attraction to Brandon, but swears she’s not his type and that he’ll be nothing more than a player.
The story follows Charlie as she continues to renovate the unit, whilst developing a new friendship with the tattoo artists next door.
After spending time with Stacey and Livy from next door, they decide to set Charlie up with a colleague of Stacey’s boyfriend. Following this, they all go out on a group date, including Brandon.
During the group date, awkward tension begins to build as Charlie continues to deny her attraction to Brandon, who she believes a relationship won’t work with. Charlie continues getting to know the man Stacey and Livy set her up with, whilst also spending time with Brandon, who helps her in renovating the unit. As the pair spend more and more time alone together, feelings begin to develop – but Charlie has been warned by the girls that Brandon doesn’t do girlfriends; leading her to shut down all ideas of Brandon.
The more time she spends with both boys, the more she becomes torn on who to go with. Eventually, she decides to give her blind date a chance, where she goes on a date and returns to the bakery, but is interrupted by Brandon before she can seal with a kiss.
In the bakery, Brandon and Charlie end up having a food fight, which almost leads to a kiss.
Their feelings for one another continue to grow stronger, but both deny them and stop themselves from taking action.
Charlie is left feeling disappointed when she is visited by Brandon’s former girlfriend, who insinuates that they’re still seeing one another. This leads Charlie to completely cut Brandon off, believing that he is no more than a player who was leading her on.
When Brandon discovers his ex girlfriend’s motives, he visits Charlie to reassure her that what his ex girlfriend said was a lie.
The story ends where they end up together and celebrate the opening of Charlie’s bakery, which is a success.
When I was reading this book, I was left with little surprise as to what to expect from the story and author, seeing as it was the final book. By this point I was familiar with the authors writing style and content.
I found that this book, just like the previous two, was a very quick and easy book to read. It had short chapters which I’ve mentioned in the previous reviews, made it easier and more motivating to get through.
I was also more motivated than ever to finish this book as it was on the last day of May and I don’t like having books started in one month and finished in another.
Despite my apprehension to continue the series, I’m glad I did. I enjoyed this book the most out of all three and not for any particular reason. I enjoyed the spice a bit more and didn’t find myself cringing at it.
Again with the previous two books, this book also lacked detail and depth to the storyline. The plots of the Good Girls series seem to be surface level and don’t dive deeper than the obvious.
Charlie, the FMC had a very bland personality and her only personality trait was that she was opening up a bakery. That’s all the storyline focused on with her. I felt like it was lightly mentioned about her history and briefly alluded to her past, but I couldn’t explain what that could be because it wasn’t explored enough to give a topic of what she could’ve went through. I didn’t find myself able to emotionally connect with her and found that she was quite “pick me” at times. She would constantly express how a tattooed man like Brandon, would never go for a girl like her – it just came across very pick me and beggy.
The title has “Bad Boy” in the title, but Brandon couldn’t have been described further away than a bad boy. He had tattoos and was described as not the relationship type, but nothing about his actions or behaviour screamed a bad boy, so I was very confused by it – if anything, he was very polite and caring towards Charlie, he wasn’t rude or vulgar.
Overall, the series lacked a substantial amount of depth and detail. There were plot lines that could’ve been explored, but were mentioned purely to be a breakup between the characters. The FMC’s lacked a personality, which made it hard to relate to or connect with. I have to say, seeing this series on BookTok and actually experiencing it has left me very underwhelmed.
My Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️
Georgia
♥
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